Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 111, expands the scope of practice for pharmacists in two different ways. One, it allows pharmacists to test for, screen for, and treat the flu, strep, and other non-chronic health conditions such as lice, skin conditions, and minor uncomplicated infections. The protocols for pharmacists testing and treating these…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 387, a bill dealing with surplus lines, passed the House on March 27, 2019 and will be sent to the Senate for consideration and approval. The bill was initially set for its first floor hearing on March 27th with no vote set to be taken, but the House…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 7 expands direct primary care and is a priority bill of the House. By expanding direct primary care to more specialized medical services, the bill meets Speaker Oliva’s goal of increasing health care options to Floridians in order to reduce health care costs. The bill changes all statutory references…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House voted its workers’ comp reform bill out of its first committee on March 26, 2019 when the House Insurance and Banking Subcommittee unanimously passed the bill. The Senate bill was set for its first committee hearing this week, but it was postponed, allegedly because the sponsor…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 1363, the House frozen formulary bill, was amended in committee on March 26, 2019 to lock in the pricing of drugs on the formulary for the plan year to prevent drug companies from taking advantage of the frozen formulary by increasing drug prices during the plan year when…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House and Senate passed their chamber’s version of the electric scooter bill during committee meetings this week. The House bill has one committee left and the Senate bill has two. The biggest difference in the bills is preemption of local government regulation of scooters. The House bill preempts…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On March 26, 2019, with the bill sponsor again citing privacy concerns as the impetus for the bill, the House moved its bill (HB 879) to prohibit life and long-term care insurers from using genetic information out of its second committee by a vote of 9-6. All five of…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House Health Market Reform Subcommittee expanded the enteral formula mandate bill when they met on March 26, 2019. They adopted one amendment to HB 539. Under the amended bill, the limit on enteral formulas under individual or group health insurance policies is increased from $2,500 to $5,000. Also,…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The 10% per year rate increase limit that applies to all policyholders of Citizens Property Insurance Corporation (Citizens) will be reduced to 5% for the next two years for policyholders in the Florida Keys under an amended bill approved on March 25, 2019 by the Senate Banking and Insurance…